2016 Ambassador: Sabrina Xiao

08 Nov 2016 Ambassador: Sabrina Xiao

Future career goals

Description of your school/organization where you plan to integrate this project

Newport is a highly academic school with 1700 students and many AP course options, including all the AP science classes. There are many clubs, including multiple science clubs.

What originally made you interested in this project?

I was interested in PF1010 because I think that science has the capability to solve many of the environmental problems we are facing right now. We can use this science to preserve the earth for future generations.

Why do you want to bring this project to your school/community center/organization?

I want to bring what I’ve learned to my community, so that we can all live in a more sustainable manner despite our differing interests and lifestyles.

What current clubs are available? What teachers/courses could integrate this project?

Possible teachers: AP Biology teachers, the AP Environmental Science teacher
Current clubs: Eco Club; however, it is currently inactive and ASB approval is a complex process.

What is your plan?

The other Newport students and I will visit the AP Environmental Science teacher in the beginning of the year. We will ask to use the back of her room to build an aquaponics system. Using what we already have, as well as crowd fundraising to buy DIY supplies, we will construct a system to keep in her room and periodically record and maintain the system.

We can ask her to offer extra credit for the system, or offer building an aquaponics project as a final project for after the AP exam in May. As the system is growing during the school year, we can suggest that she point to the system throughout her lessons as an example of environmental science processes (eg. nitrogen cycle, ecosystems, etc.). The aquaponics system can serve as a demo and model during lessons.

What challenges do you think you will face in getting this set up?

-Building the aquaponics system
-Actually getting the aquaponics system to work
-Getting the teacher to agree to let us use her space
-Getting the teacher to agree to offering extra credit or a final project
-Raising money in order to first set up the system